COUNCIL leader Chris Robbins has hit back at Tory claims that the Labour leadership must take responsibility for cuts to services for vulnerable people.

Opposition group leader Cllr Matt Davis yesterday said the cabinet does not need to impose heavy cuts to budgets for adult social care and children’s services as restrictions on what local authorities can spend their money on had been lifted.

This followed previous claims by the Labour administration that its hands were tied over where to make savings, as funds were ring-fenced for specific purposes.

Cllr Davis also said the council must ‘get real’ over budgets for social care, as details of a predicted large overspend emerged.

But Labour says this is the result of 'increasing pressure' on services.

Cllr Robbins reacted angrily to his opponent's attack over the cuts, which have been prompted by an unprecedented reduction in government grants.

He said: “For Matt Davis to say that we are not forced into making cuts in certain areas shows how little he understands about local government finances.

“His attitude is as reckless as the government's. It’s time he grew up and stopped trying to pass the buck.

“At no stage over the past eight months have the Conservative group or Lib Dem group made any suggestions on how we can deal with the current financial crisis.

“That’s because it is their Tory-led Government that is enforcing these brutal cuts.

“They have disgracefully avoided their responsibilities.”

As the blame game intensifies over council cuts, which will see hundreds of job losses and frontline services hit, political attacks are becoming increasingly personal.

Yesterday Matt Davis insisted the town hall savings were “Chris’s cuts” and blamed the former cabinet member for children for delays in implementing the Building Schools for the Future programme, which would have seen multi-million pound improvements to 16 of the borough’s schools.

He said other similar schemes in other areas, which had started at the same time, had been completed successfully and suggested the council’s push for a judicial review into the scrapping of BSF was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Cllr Robbins responded: “If the leader of the Conservative group spent more time in the borough he would understand the anger felt by our residents.

“His cheap shots tell us all we need to know about how little he cares for what our residents are going through.

“Matt’s quite right that we should not have to battle with the Government to return the BSF monies.

“They should have the decency to return the money with immediate effect and apologise to our young people.

“BSF was a very effective programme that is benefiting many of our students right now. We were able to renew and regenerate six schools, which we are very proud of after a generation of wilful neglect from the Conservatives.

“Labour’s record in Waltham Forest in rebuilding and investing in schools surpasses anything that the Conservatives have ever done for this borough.

“Pursuing the judicial review is supported by our residents. It shows that we are prepared to stand up for young people instead of watching the government ride roughshod over our young people’s chances of a decent education.”

The judicial review is due to begin on Monday.